


The Life She Chose

by SoWrongButSoWrite (CinnaStarks)



Series: Inquisitor Izuna [22]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Dalish, Drabble, Exile, F/M, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 16:48:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4399682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinnaStarks/pseuds/SoWrongButSoWrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Corypheus defeated, Cullen no longer has an excuse to not ask Inquisitor Lavellan about what her clan thinks about the decisions she has made since the Inquisition began.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Life She Chose

A week has passed since Corypheus’ defeat. The morning is young and, for once, there is nothing to tear them away from her, no,  _their_ quarters’ balcony. Their. He still uses his office, but its purpose has been reduced to work and work only. His few personal items fill the gaps between hers. When the retreat through the same door every night, no one bats an eye because  _everyone_ knows.

But, as his mind wanders through the peaceful atmosphere, Cullen realizes how wrong he is.

“Do they know?” His lips form a question that his heart does not want to know the answer to.

“About what?” Izuna Lavellan asks, her even tone suggesting that she knows whom he refers to.

“Us.”

She shrugs. “In the last letter Deshanna sent me, before the Arbor Wilds, she said that rumors of my affair with a shem were running wild through Wycome.” Her eyes narrow into the Frostbacks, as if she could make out the city state from miles away. “Said she trusted my judgement.”

Izuna does not have to explain what her Keeper meant by that. He can hear it in the way she nearly chokes on that last word. Her chest seems to stutter. “What about the Well?”

The next breath is a cut off, watery huff of a laugh. “Cullen, if they don’t already know that their First turned down one of the largest sources of Elven knowledge to be discovered in the Ages because-“Her cheeks are reddening. Her voice is wavering. “-she was too afraid of how it could affect not only her own happiness, but the happiness of those she had grown to care about-” She does not protest when he places his unarmored hand on her shoulder and pulls her closer to his side. “-then they will.”

“Izuna, I’m-“ He begins, but she shakes her head.

“I was not chosen, I  _have_  chosen.” Izuna quotes a time in which she, after escaping the clutches of death twice, stood before the masses and promised to lead them into the future Cullen now calls the present. Grey irises meet brown. “I  _chose_  to let myself fall in love rather than ignore the way I felt, and still feel, about you.” Spindly hands grasp calloused. “I  _chose_ to let Morrigan drink from the Well of Sorrows because it felt like too much of a risk.” Though there is fire in her words, no tears fall down her cheeks nor glass over her eyes.

“And what if they exile you?” Cullen asks yet another question that part of him doesn’t want answered. “What if you can’t go back?”

“Thane Svarah Sun-Hair gave me the legend-mark, First Thaw, because of what I did to help Stone-Bear Hold.” Izuna’s lips spread into a slight smile. “If I am exiled, then I will wear that name with as much pride as I did my Clan’s.”

Her serenity is contagious, spreading from her expression to Cullen’s center like fire. “Inquisitor First Thaw.” He gently pulls her into a kiss, breathing in a correction before their lips can meet. “ _Izuna_  First Thaw.”


End file.
